Will Hyperlocal Targeting Put Your Marketing in Hyperdrive?

by Drew Hutchinson

Local marketing is not necessarily a new concept – but with sophisticated tracking data available from search engine providers, social media sites, and practically any other website or app that uses cookies, beacons, and other cyber-wizardry to monitor user behavior, digital marketers now have more tools than ever to deliver highly relevant, location-specific ads to their target audience. Read on for how you can use the power of local marketing to boost your conversions.

“Hyperlocal” Marketing: What It Is and How It Works

A spa and beauty salon might use location targeting on Google AdWords to buy pay-per-click traffic for the search phrase “salon near me.” Whenever someone conducts a Google search for this phrase (or something similar) on their smartphone, Google captures the GPS data of the user’s phone, enabling them to serve the salon’s ad with location-specific text that will be highly relevant to that user.

This practice is known as “hyperlocal” marketing, and it enables brands to essentially cherry-pick their prospects instead of depending upon the traditional spray and pray advertising methods of years past. Several programmatic advertising platforms now allow marketers to purchase as little or as many ad impressions as they need, using a real-time bidding system that aggregates all kinds of targeting data (e.g., behavioral, demographic, interest, location, etc.) to deliver just the right ad to just the right prospect, at just the right time.

The Irresistible Appeal of Hyperlocal Marketing

Dozens of studies on hyperlocal marketing continue to build a positive case for this burgeoning technology. While the finer details may vary, the big-picture data is confirming what most marketers have suspected all along –a more specific and targeted advertising approach will yield a more meaningful connection with consumers, leading to increased revenue and higher conversion rates.

Think about it: What could make a consumer feel more connected to your brand than to experience your marketing message within the context of their familiar everyday surroundings? Imagine running a location-specific pre-roll video ad campaign featuring several different local landmarks that are highly familiar to your target audience. What you’ve essentially done is connect your marketing message with your audience’s feelings of hometown pride, creating a memorable emotional impression that puts your brand in a very favorable light.

Hyperlocal Marketing: What’s Next?

As targeting technology continues to mature – along with the continued growth of wearable tech and smart home automation – you can expect the volume and quality of information on consumers to become even more robust, giving advertisers more data points to work with to help them understand the preferences and behavior patterns of their target audience.